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Thursday, July 8, 2010

Ginger Milk Curd 姜汁撞奶

Ginger milk curd, also known as ginger-juice milk curd or simply ginger milk, is a Chinese hot dessert originated in Shawan town of Panyu District, Guangzhou in the Guangdong Province in southern China. The main ingredients are ginger, milk, and sugar. Water buffalo milk is used in the original recipe. (source: Wikipedia)

Though I remember I have seen this dessert in some Hongkong cafes (茶餐厅) before it had never caught my attention as it sounds too simple for me to pay for it (it is just ginger milk right?!), I would rather order my all times favarorite dessert, Mango Pamelo Sago (杨枝甘露).

Not until I saw this blog entry from Table for 2 or more. The underlying biochemical principle of this dessert make it sound more exotic and interesting.

Underlying Biochemical PrincipleGinger contains protease. When milk is added to ginger juice, protease catalyses hydrolysis of the protein in the milk, changing it from a water-soluble form to a water-insoluble form, and leads to the formation of milk curd. (source: Wikipedia)

In simple words, milk curd will be formed just by pouring hot milk into ginger juice. This process is called “撞” (bump). I think the chef who invented this dessert is a genius or a scientist to a certain extend.

I was very eager to witness this myself. So I decided to give it a try.

I did some homework from the Internet and found this video from Ytower which I thought was very useful.

Below is what I learnt from the video and some other websites I visited. These are the three critical factors to make a successful ginger milk curd.

1) Type of MilkAlways use full cream milk, preferably with fat content above 3.8% (i.e. 3.8g of fat per 100ml of milk).

This is the milk I used.

The fat content is 3.8g per 100ml. I checked the entire UHT milk shelf; this was the only milk that met the criteria. It's a house brand of a local supermarket chain in Singapore, SGD1.75 for one litre, considered one of the cheapest milk around.

Let's check out the nutrition information.

2) Ginger JuiceAlways use juice from old ginger as old ginger contains more protease which is an important ingredient for the milk curd.

3) Temperature of MilkMost of the sources I read suggest adding milk to ginger juice when its temperature is between 80C-85C. I do not own a thermometer so what I can do is to observe and guess but don't worry there is sign to look up for.

1) Stir well ginger juice, measure 1 tbsp and add into the setting bowl.2) Heat up the milk in a saucepan over low heat until tiny bubbles appear around the edge of the pan. Add sugar.3) Turn the saucepan in circular motion to mix the sugar with milk (why not using a spoon to stir? I am not sure too I just follow the instruction in the Ytower video closely) .4) Continue to cook the milk till bigger bubbles appear around the edge of the pan. Remove from heat.5) At this point the milk temperature should be around 90C. Turn the saucepan in circular motion again for about 20 times.6) Just before pouring the milk into the ginger juice, stir the ginger juice again (this is to prevent the powder aka protease from sinking at the bottom), pour the milk into the ginger juice bowl at once from high (Wendy suggested 6 inches above).7) Cover the bowl, wait for 10 mins to set (the Ytower video said 3 mins but there are some sources mentioned 5 mins and some mentioned 10 mins, again “just in case”, I waited for 10 mins).8) To test if milk curd is formed, leave a spoon on the surface, the spoon should float.

The moment of truth......

The spoon was floating!

I was very excited the moment I saw the spoon floating. I left the spoon on the surface for quite a while and it stayed put.

The milk curd was very soft and smooth. When eaten it was creamy and sort of like melt in the mouth. I like the taste too, very milky with strong ginger taste (so if you don't like ginger probably you will not like this dessert).

I was addicted to it. I had two servings on the same day, morning and afternoon. I craved for it again at night, if not that I was too lazy to extract ginger juice, I would have made this dessert the third time on the same day.

Note: I made this dessert again on the next day and I used brown sugar instead, it tasted even nicer. Yum yum!

I went to supermarket in Singapore to look for the milk you mentioned but I couldn't find it. Instead, I found Pauls brand low fat milk, I am not sure if it is the same as what you have tried. I have gotten myself a pack and shall try it out one of these days.